1966 SILVER QUARTER

Fort Bayard, located in the homeland of the Apaches, was established in August 1866, by Company B of the 125th U.S. Colored Infantry under the command of Lieutenant James Kerr. He established an encampment near the mining communities of Pinos Altos and Santa Rita.

Soldiers from the Fort battled many of the most famous apache war leaders including Victorio, Nana, and Geronimo. In the late 1870s all five of the cavalry units stationed at Fort Bayard fought Victorio and his followers. The troops used both Apache and Navajo scouts in their efforts. After the death of Victorio in October of 1880, his successor, Nana, took up the fight and led an especially devastating raid in July and August of 1881. Nana's band fought troops of the 9th Cavalry eight times. In one of these encounters, in Gavalan Canyon which joins the Mimbres River, Lieutenant George W. Smith and four enlisted men from Fort Bayard were killed.

The McComas Incident occurred on March 27, 1883. This event made national news for weeks and had a lasting impact on the lives of the Apaches. The press all over the country demanded immediate and decisive action be used to stop these atrocities. Judge McComas, a prominent citizen in Silver City, along with his wife, and son, Charlie, were traveling by buckboard from Silver City to Lordsburg. A band of Apache attacked them at the mouth of Thompson Canyon in the Burro Mountains. They killed the Judge and his wife and carried Charlie off. Soldiers and local citizens failed to find any trace of Charlie. To this day, stories abound about what happened to this blond-haired little boy.

Finally, with the surrender of Geronimo on September 1886, the conflict came to an end. The Indians no longer presented a threat to the area. Fort Bayard continued as an active Army post until 1899. About this time it was proposed that the Fort be abandoned. However, Surgeon General Sternberg of the U.S. Army had noted the general well-being of the line troops on duty at the fort. He suspected the area's mild climate and gentle seasons were making a difference in maintaining healthy troops. He began posting troops sick with tuberculosis who were returning from the tropics.

He conceived the idea of transferring the post to the Medical Department as an Army General Hospital for the treatment and research of tuberculosis. Army doctors began producing excellent results with their patients. During World War One there were as many as 1,700 patients at the hospital. From 1899 to 1920, some of the foremost medical army officers in the country carried out important work here.

On May 1, 1922, Fort Bayard came under the jurisdiction of the Veterans Administration and then in 1966, it was turned over to the State of New Mexico as a public nursing home.

Today the post cemetery, which began in 1866, is all that remains as a reminder of past glories. It was designated on July 5, 1976, as a National Cemetery. It continues to be used, and holds the remains of hundreds of armed forces personnel and their dependents, destitute civilians of the frontier days, and a few unknowns.

Because of its continuous use, Fort Bayard did not suffer the fate of its surrounding sister forts. Visitors can still visit the area and see the silent parade ground with its surrounding officers quarters proudly facing Clinton Greaves' statue armed and ready to go. Close by is the still-flourishing hospital which continues to serve the needs of people living in the area.

Plastic, bent spine was originally a novelty keychain. The L1 and L2 are for Lumbar 1 and 2. / Blackened, aged quarter found on my living room floor. 1966. Was already blackened and tarnished. [Are these silver?] I set it in the pelvic area to sort of denote a place for a baby. Or a vacancy in that area. The red “X” is kind of just for a bit of color. And “broke” can be connotative of a state of financial poverty as well as the obvious definition of disrepair or damaged. / Old postage stamps from Chris Dyer. Torn from a package sent to him from a purchase of old postcards on eBay. / Rusted bolt from my parking space. / Porcelain dentistry tooth from some unknown old dental display. An incisor. [?] / Rusted nail from my parking space.

An old friend is in town from Colorado to visit Chris and me. She has some new mechanical implant in her lower back. It comes with some remote control she can use to turn it on and off. This is all stemming from her broken back. The spine was used for this reason. I marked on the plastic spine the same 2 vertebrae that she broke.

I will have to end these bones and skeletons immediately or I’ll be stuck in that rut. I painted the glass black on this one. The whole week just felt that way.